Effectiveness of multicomponent treatment in patients with fibromyalgia: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this protocol is to provide a new systematic review with meta-analysis using the current methodology to compare the effectiveness of multicomponent treatment versus other interventions for patients with fibromyalgia.

Methods: This protocol conforms to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) and the recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration Handbook. An electronic search will be conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, LILACS, CINAHL, and PEDro, from inception until April 2022. There will be no language restrictions. The Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessing the risk of bias (RoB2) will be used. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) scale will be used to evaluate the strength of the evidence. The Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman random effects or Mantel-Haenszel fixed effects methods will be used, depending on the heterogeneity, to compute a pooled estimate of the mean difference (MD) or standardized mean difference (SMD) and respective 95% confidence intervals for clinical outcomes.

Discussion: This systematic review will synthesize evidence on the effectiveness of multicomponent treatment in patients with fibromyalgia and could add important evidence in the treatment of FM to improve clinical practice and decision-making/actions in this field. This new systematic review will try to show the effects of multicomponent treatment by type (endurance, resistance, stretching, or mind-body exercises [pilates or taichi]) and intensity (light, moderate, moderate-to-vigorous, vigorous) of exercise in patients with FM. The results will be disseminated by publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Ethics approval will not be needed because the data used for this systematic review will be obtained from individual trials and there will be no concerns about privacy. However, if we identify ethical issues during the development of the systematic review, these findings will be reported in the discussion of the study.

Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42020142082.

Keywords: Fibromyalgia; Meta-analysis; Multicomponent treatment; Pain; Protocol; Systematic review.